Although I've got to say, Southern weddings are minor events compared to Yankee weddings. Down here, it starts around noon, and everybody's home in time for dinner. At the few I've been to up in New York and Connecticut, it starts around noon, and people have to be dragged home at two in the morning. And they usually are dragged because an open bar is pretty standard up there.
Wait, are you saying free booze served at weddings is unusual in the South? Because I thought that's a tradition that's existed since Biblical times. I don't think they would have needed Jesus to turn their water into wine if they had a cash bar going on.
Yeah, it is kind of unusual. The Bible Belt has a love/hate thing with alcohol. Which is to say, the people love it, and the churches hate it. It's not even unusual for Southern Baptist churches to substitute sparkling grape juice for wine at Communion, because alcohol is the devil's brew. (They'd explain those passages about the wedding at Cana as being a mistranslation and that Jesus actually turned them into grape juice. Incidentally, they'd also argue that's why the guests liked his wine best.)
Worst wedding I ever went to was where her family was Mormon and his family was Southern Baptist. They didn't even have anything with caffeine in it, much less booze. (so then they had a second reception later for their college-age friends where we all got shitfaced).
I suppose Catholic churches and Jewish synagogues might go open bar, but for the most part it's seen as profligate and just a bad idea. It's also expensive (in no small part because people are like, "Holy shit, you mean I can drink as much as I want without paying?!?? HOOK IT UP TO MY VEINS!")
We did sort of a compromise, where the beer and wine was open bar (within the amount we pre-purchased), but liquor was provided by the venue and was cash bar. Plus, our circle of friends are all kind of beer snobs, so this way we knew we'd have good beer to drink, while the extended family who might just be there to get their drink on would probably shy away from the Double Imperial IPAs and such because...y'know,
they actually taste like beer.